In what could be one of the richest sunken treasure troves ever discovered,a treasure hunter has claimed to have found a World War II shipwreck containing $3 billion worth of platinum bars.

Greg Brooks,of Sub-Sea Research in Maine,says he has found the wreck of a British merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Cod during World War II while carrying what he claims was a load of platinum bars,now worth more than $ 3 billion,the BBC reported. The wreck,he claims,sitting 80 kilometres off the US Atlantic coast,is of the SS Port Nicholson,which went down in 1942.

He said he and his crew identified the ship via the hull number using an underwater camera,and he hopes to begin raising the treasure later this month using a remotely-operated underwater vessel.

However,some doubt his claim. Anthony Shusta,an attorney representing the British government,says it is unclear if the ship carried platinum. And if it was laden with precious metals,he said,who owns it could become a matter of international dispute.

But Brooks says a US Treasury Department ledger shows platinum bars,part of a payment from the Soviet Union to the US for war supplies,were on board. He also has underwater footage which he says shows a platinum bar surrounded by 30 boxes that he believes holds platinum ingots,the report said.

Im going to get it,one way or another,even if I have to lift the ship out of the water, he said.